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HTC launches new “One” smartphone

LONDON- Taiwan’s HTC Corp has unveiled a new smartphone that it hopes will set it apart from the crowd of Google Android devices on the market and help it make up ground lost to Samsung.

The HTC One is powered by Google’s software, but the company has distinguished it from rivals by using new software to replace icons on the home screen with a personalized stream of news articles, social networking updates, photos and video.

Guests use a sample phone at the launch of the HTC One smartphone in London, Feb. 19, 2013. (TOBY MELVILLE / REUTERS)

Chief executive Peter Chou told reporters in London that the BlinkFeed feature would reinvigorate the smartphone experience.

“BlinkFeed transforms your home screen into a live feed of information that matters to you,” he said.

HTC was an early, and successful, maker of smartphones based on Android, but it has been eclipsed by the increasing dominance of Samsung in the Android market.

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Android is widening its lead in smartphone operating systems, with devices running the software capturing nearly 70 per cent of the market in the fourth quarter, Gartner said last week.

Apple is in second place with 21 per cent, while BlackBerry and Windows Phone, which Nokia is pinning its hopes on, trailed with 3.5 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.

HTC, however, has failed to capitalize on Android’s dominance. Its share of mobile phone sales fell to 1.8 per cent of the market last year, down from 2.4 per cent in 2011, according to Gartner, and reported a 91 per cent plunge in fourth-quarter net profit last month.

The company, which started as a contract manufacturer, has been outgunned in the marketing stakes by both Samsung, which Gartner said made more than 42 per cent of Android smartphones in the fourth quarter, and Apple.

HTC launched its new device, which features a 4.7 inch screen and quad-core processor, days before the mobile phone industry’s biggest gathering in Barcelona.

Analyst Julian Jest, of Informa Telecoms and Media, said that the new smartphone would help HTC to differentiate its brand from the typical Android offering.

“The introduction of HTC One has come at an ideal time—iPhone sales are slowing down and advanced users are now desperately looking for more innovative devices to satisfy their appetite to explore the new technology horizons,” he said.

HTC said the device would be available in more than 80 countries from March.

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